UT FOOTBALL VIEW FROM THE HILL Story behind Higher costs ’16 signees for higher ed GoVols247’s Ryan Callahan Legislators, administrators Free! looks at this year’s class and square o over who’s to blame Please how it was signed. for state’s rising tuitions. P15 P3 take one. Tennessee Athletics/UTsports.com February 19 – 25, 2016 Vol. 42 | Issue 8 KNOXVILLE EDITION www.TNLedger.com/Knoxville The power of information. LedgerDAVIDSON • WILLIAMSON • SUMNER • CHEATHAM • RUTHERFORD WILSON ROBERTSON • MAURY • DICKSON • MONTGOMERY • KNOX • ANDERSON •BLOUNT •SEVIER | FORMERLY WESTVIEW SINCE 1978 Becoming a big wheel among potters Moe-McQueen’s work in demand from Chase Malone | The Ledger Blackberry Farm Leanne Moe-McQueen looks for imperfections in a to Manhattan stack of her bowls. Stories by Bonny Millard begin on page 2 Community Calendar ............................6 More inside: Crossword.................................................6 Find Public Notices Career Corner ..........................................3 Newsmakers ..........................................13 inside & online: News Briefs ..............................................4 Public Notices ........................7-11, 18–25 www.TNLedger.com Guerrilla Marketing ...............................5 Behind the Wheel .................................27 Page 2 www.TNLedger.com/Knoxville FEBRUARY 19 – 25, 2016 Moe-McQueen’s little shop yields big success By Bonny C. Millard | Correspondent A cube of clay thuds onto the potter’s wheel. Hannah Harper, artist and studio manager, prepares to transform it as the wheel’s rhythmic sound accompanies the voice of her boss, potter and entrepreneur Leanne Moe-McQueen. Moe-McQueen owns Studio 212 in downtown Maryville and is the creative and business force behind her own brand of tableware, McQueen Pottery. “During the day, we are a working pottery [studio],” Moe-McQueen says. “We do a line called McQueen Pottery. We do a line of dinnerware for the table, and we have a lot of restaurants throughout the southeast with handmade tableware as well as for the home.” Her pottery line has taken her to Manhattan and has a place at the table at Chase Malone | The Ledger Hannah Harper, artist and studio manager at e Barn at Blackberry Farm, the luxury Studio 212, glazes the bottoms of dinnerware. resort in Walland, which has received recognition from national magazines such other local artists. as Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Afternoons at the studio are busy with Leisure. kids coming in to take a variety of classes “We do a line exclusive for Blackberry. including drawing, painting and pottery. So we do e Barn right now. We do “It’s kind of like running two a line where we use the ash from their businesses. You have six instructors who hearth and made a glaze out of it,” Moe- teach for you. McQueen says. Chase Malone | The Ledger “After three o’clock, this place is full “We just started working with Leanne Moe-McQueen’s line of McQueen Pottery has received recognition from national magazines of kids, teens and adults. It’s kind of like such as Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure. Sarah Ste an at e Dogwood (also at an art center for the community,” Moe- Blackberry Farm), and we’re doing a line dinner party and enjoyed seeing her work throwing pots and says she enjoys that McQueen explains. for them.” displayed. her studio provides art classes for kids and “And then during the daytime, we’re Last summer, Moe-McQueen had the “We ew up over 200 pieces to adults, rental space for other artists and is producing a lot of pottery. ere are four opportunity to work with a dinner club Manhattan, and we plated the dinner a friendly community gathering spot for girls who work down here to do that.” in Manhattan. She made the dinnerware for the evening,” she says. “It was an people who want to drop by and see what A special room in the back has been for the Spring Street Social Society, an interesting venue.” the artists are up to. sound-proofed so Sarah Pirkle, a well- exclusive food and wine group that held Gathering spot e studio’s gallery showcases and known East Tennessee musician who a dinner at the Bowery Street Station Moe-McQueen began her career sells the work of its artists and Moe- in August. Moe-McQueen joined the McQueen’s dinnerware as well as a few STUDIO >> PAGE 14 Eclectic groups nd space to create at Studio 212 By Bonny C. Millard | Correspondent Other artists, other voices Studio 212 houses an eclectic all-female group of artists e artists – including a musician who teaches classes who feed o the creative energy of the space. – make their own schedules and work independently. Ranging in ages and interests, they bring in unique Several were on hand recently to share the joy of their perspectives and talents. work and the bene ts of being part of a working studio. Fittingly, the stereo is playing Pandora selections of e atmosphere of creativity helps keep the artists such great female singers as Ella Fitzgerald. e haunting focused on their own individual projects, and the melodies and wailing saxophone from a bygone era add collaborative spirit of the studio allows them to get critical another dimension to the open space that’s lled with feedback that they wouldn’t have working in their own laughter and talk about ongoing projects. spaces. Pepper, owner Leanne Moe-McQueen’s dog, is on In the process, the artists create a warm and inviting hand to greet visitors with a friendly wag of her tail. environment for the community to enjoy. Moe-McQueen, a potter who created a line of Oil painter Stacey Austin Heil, who has been with dinnerware – McQueen Pottery, opened this location of the studio from the beginning – “I helped her rip up Studio 212 about four years ago with enough space to oors and tear down walls and paint” – says Studio 212 rent out to other artists, something she had wanted to do. gives the artists a unique interaction that they wouldn’t “I think I’m lucky that I get to go to work every day otherwise have. and enjoy what I do, surrounded by a great group of “ e collaboration is great. e thing is that we’ve all women. It is a very female dominated studio,” she points been to college for art – we all understand how to ask out. “It’s kind of nice to go back and forth on something, somebody their opinion of something and understand and you always nd something going on down here. how to give your opinion of something. It’s professional “Sometimes you maybe don’t want an opinion, but critique,” Austin Heil says. you’re going to get the damn thing, which I think is good “You’re receiving that critique from your peers, and because sometimes you can get stagnant when you work it’s really great. at’s one of my favorite things about alone a lot. being here. And also being around creatives, it breeds Chase Malone | The Ledger “It’s nice when you have that constant feedback. You creativity.” Marilyn Dwyer, who runs a graphic design business, works on a A freelance graphic designer, Austin Heil says this pastoral scene in pastels from a photograph she took of a Blount bounce back o of each other, and everybody’s got such a County barn. “I’m coming back to this after not doing it for so di erent perspective on things.” ARTISTS >> PAGE 14 many years…” FEBRUARY 19 – 25, 2016 www.TNLedger.com/Knoxville Page 3 Schools vs. Legislature Higher-ed’s rising costs: Who’s at fault? When gures are fees above a CPI increase without a vote presented detailing a by the full board. An increase greater than 456 percent increase 2 percent would require a unanimous in tuition and fees vote, and an increase less than the CPI shutterstock.com at the University of increase plus 2 percent would require a Tennessee-Knoxville supermajority vote. View over the last 20 years, e state’s HOPE Scholarship covers Human contact from the Hill the result is usually only about half of tuition and fees at most some serious sticker four-year universities and only 32 percent By SAM beats online form STOCKARD shock. at UT-Knoxville, she points out. at’s what happened “ e statistics also show neither a large O ne of the top things that stops us recently when state Sen. Dolores Gresham increase in enrollment nor decreases Ledger in our job-seeking tracks is the online presented the Tennessee Tuition Stability in state funding are to blame for the application process. We submit resume Act, a measure designed to rein in tuition problem,” Gresham says. The power of after resume and never hear anything growth and make it easier for students “When higher education can’t get information. back. and parents to pay for a four-year degree. the money they need out of the state, Career So, if the Internet isn’t working, Corner Of course, University of Tennessee and instead of making tough choices to cut Published weekly by what’s the answer? Tennessee Board of Regents o cials are their budget and live within their means, Westview Newspaper, LLC By ANGELA e best solution is to reach out to balking at her bill, saying it doesn’t tell the they have been balancing their budgets COPELAND real, live people. In today’s age, when 222 Second Ave. N. real nancial story of their institutions. on the backs of Tennessee’s students and Suite 101 it’s tough to stop by someone’s home unannounced or But she caught people’s attention, working families.” Nashville, TN 37201 even to call without notice, the idea of contacting other (615) 254-5522 including those on the Senate Education She further calls the steady rise in FAX: (615) 254-5525 people seems extreme.